Between having Maria and the household staff to wait on her, Bette never had to lift a finger in the house but all this privilege came at price. Melvin had very high expectations of his children and witnessing how her older sister Kit had disappointed him drove Bette to overachieve; to please him; to never disappoint. You can imagine the stress and pressure of always being the best, but she did it.

Bette was enrolled in the best private schools and excelled at every scholastic endeavor whether it was in academics, sports, or the arts. No matter how well she did Melvin instilled in her to do better; make higher grades, make smarter choices, and most of all stay away from her older sister. He already had one wayward daughter and didn’t want Bette influenced by any behavior that would lead her down a similar path.

It went without saying that Bette would attend an ivy league college and Melvin fully expected it would be Harvard; preferably their law school but he would settle for business, or maybe medicine. Up until her junior year in high school Bette had always done what Daddy wanted but this time she stood her ground.

When it came to higher education, she knew what she wanted to study and already decided on a career path. She told her father that getting a law degree or studying medicine was out of the question. She did however agree to getting her business degree. He was elated at that prospect but quickly disappointed when she told him she wasn’t going to Harvard Business School. She’d chosen her mother’s Alma mater Yale over his, but the bigger issue was her plan to do a double major. In addition to the Masters in Business she was also pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts. Her goal was to have a career in the art world; not as an artist like her mother but as a patron of the arts.

***

“She was a great artist. You remember her watercolors, don’t you?” Melvin asked sheepishly, surprising Bette yet again as he continued to talk about Maxine with what she sensed was melancholy in his voice.